Writing as Therapy Quotes

'Scar Tissue' is the only book I've ever written when I've felt completely toxic, ill.

You must stay drunk on writing so reality cannot destroy you.

I'm writing what comes into my head, or through me, or from somewhere else, and it is the most extraordinary, exciting thing. I love it, and I'm very greedy, and I really enjoy it!

If I haven't any talent for writing books or newspaper articles, well, then I can always write for myself.

Writing is an incredibly creatively empowering experience for me. It is the place where nobody tries to control what I'm doing.

I'm a writer, and the subject is less important than the act of writing itself.

Katrina silenced me for two years. I wrote a 12-page essay on my experience in Katrina, and that's it. I didn't write anything for, like, two, two and a half years after Katrina hit because it was so traumatic.

'Sally' is just a song that I wrote talking to my alter ego. When I write, I don't really consciously say, 'This is what I've been going through in my life, and I'm gonna put this into words.' It's just a song that I kinda went in and did. Then, listening back to it, I realized, 'I'm talking to myself.'

When I write I'm never really thinking about themes or the universal.

Write something, even if it's just a suicide note.

I had written two or three books before my husband noticed that in every one of them a family member was missing. He suggested that it was because my father's death, when I was five, utterly changed my world. I can only suppose he is right and that this is the reason I am drawn to a narrative where someone's life is changed by loss.

Poetry is not an expression of the party line. It's that time of night, lying in bed, thinking what you really think, making the private world public, that's what the poet does.

Heartbreak has definitely been a big inspiration for me. You can write about a bad situation and just feel so much better afterwards. For me it's very therapeutic. But love in general - even when it's good - is always very inspiring.

Nothing can be as astounding as life. Except for writing. Yes, of course, except for writing, the sole consolation.

The great thing about writing is that...you can do all these antisocial things and you get paid for them and nobody ever arrests you because they're all make-believe. Then that way if you were actually ever driven to do any of those things, the pressure's off because you'd have already written them down. It's therapy.

Writing is so entwined with my being that I can't imagine a life without it.

You have to write about what's inside you. If I have to get something out, I'll do it.

Without a function, we cease to be. So, I will write till I die.

'Nation' was one that I'd have killed myself if I hadn't written it. It was absolutely important to me that I wrote it. It was good for my soul.

I'm one of those people who has always struggled with emotions and revealing them. When my dog Orson died, I did this very male thing of 'It's just a dog and I'll just move on.' I was very slow to grasp the emotion. But Orson is the reason I started writing about dogs.

When I write, it's to heal. It's my own self-therapy so that I don't actually feel sad all of the time.

As I'm getting older, I work out what I want and what I need. And I just need to go home and see the people I love and write.

I'm sometimes mystified by people who keep diaries. I never thought of my existence as being that important.

I didn't originally intend on writing a book. I started writing during the day to feel like I was accomplishing something creative.

I think anything that's creative really takes my mind off whatever it is that I'm going through in my life. If you're going through heartbreak, and you can write a song, it's a wonderful win-win, because it takes your mind off the heartbreak, and you get to vent.